Eli Lilly earnings hit by settlement
The Indianapolis-based drugmaker said it earned $132 million, (€101m) or 12 cents per share, compared with $701m, or 64 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.
Revenue rose 9% to $4.25 billion (€2.53bn) in the quarter, fuelled by higher sales of its Cymbalta depression treatment and higher Zyprexa sales.
“Relatively exceptional pricing gains contributed 6% of the overall 9% (revenue) growth, and we would be cautious on the sustainability of such trends,” JP Morgan analyst Chris Shibutani said in a research note.
Profit growth will also be crimped by heavy spending on research, including late-stage trials of an experimental blood clot drug called prasugrel that Lilly deems potentially superior to Bristol-Myers Squibb blockbuster Plavix.
Sales should grow this year in the high single or low double-digit percentage range, Lilly said.
Global Zyprexa revenue rose 12% to $1.16bn, largely due to price increases.
Lilly this month agreed to the $495m Zyprexa settlement, covering more than 18,000 patient claims. An earlier $700m Zyprexa settlement dispensed with about 8,000 claims. About 1,200 claims are not included in the settlements and will go to trial.
Lilly denied Zyprexa is more likely to cause diabetes than rival drugs and said the New York Times had improperly obtained its internal documents and taken them out of context.
Cymbalta sales leaped 85% to $424m, amid soaring demand in the United States and introductions of the drug in more overseas markets.
But Strattera, for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, fell 7% to $156 million, as concerns about safety of the class of medicines continues to hurt US sales.
Sales of Cialis, an impotence treatment that had been sold in partnership with Icos, jumped 28% to $269m.
Lilly on Monday completed its $2.3bn acquisition of Icos, gaining full control of Cialis, whose far longer-acting formulation has allowed it to wrest market share from Pfizer’s Viagra.
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